Sports Week

Coach and her team

I am a tid bit behind on my blogging. So much has happened in just the short week and a half since my last post. This week was also my first week of teaching in two weeks. Sports week started on Thursday December 2^nd and of course we missed an afternoon of school the Tuesday before so all of us teachers could go pick out our beautiful sweat suits to wear on certain days of sports week. It took about an hour to pick between two suits.

 Sports week began though with a bang. We traveled to another school Loy Pratong (sp??) which is about 30 minutes away. I am guessing about 10 schools from the area were participating from K-12. Not all my student came each day and the number of students to participate varied as well. Each day we had between 20 and 30 students, mix of boys and girls and the rest stayed home (great idea to cancel all of school for just those few kids?!?! . . . you decide). Before I go any further I should also mention that I am the volleyball coach, more like the “cheerleader coach”. I only played volleyball for 2 years in middle school and can’t even begin to communicate any tips to my students from the little I do know about the sport because I don’t have the vocabulary to do so, SO I just end up cheering them on. The first game we played against Tai Samakii, another WT volunteer Peter’s school. I wanted so badly for my girls to beat them but they were crushed in the first game 3 to 25. Then in the second game they made an amazing comeback of 23 to 25. They lost again but at least they weren’t first chewed up and then spit out. This second game was a close one and had me out of my seat screaming. I also got to “make magic” over their water during water breaks. Just imagine me swirling my hands over their water saying magic, magic. That’s basically how it went- I guess it helped a little bit because they made a great turn around in the second game.

Betonk



Tak kaw

The two sports my students rocked were tak kaw, a game that is a mix of soccer and volleyball played with three players on each team and a little wicker ball. The other sport was betonk, or bocce ball as it is sometimes called back home. Three of my boys ended up as the champions of tak kaw. They were graceful to watch and a joy to cheer on as all the other Chok Amnuay students sat on the edge of their seat watching. Two of my girls Mok and Nan were the winners of betonk. Their last game was what caused for the 5:30 return home one night. I was exhausted but as soon as I realized we were still hanging around the school waiting to see what team they would play for the championship my annoyance with the long day disappeared and I became sucked into the moment. The girls took the lead with the first few tosses of each ball to make the score quickly become 7 to 0. The other team slowly caught up for the final 4 points leaving the end of the game more on edge. Who’d a thunk watching 4 girls throw balls at another ball would be so intense. The other teachers and I were screaming and cheering on the girls and waving and blowing at the ball thrown to help it lie in a better place. At one point there was also an exchange from one of my boy students, can’t remember who, with Mok. He handed her some kind of Buddha relic to hold in her hand for the winning toss. Just as we won our final point I also saw Phee Tok showing Phee Bpoo (both female teachers at my school) that she had been holding onto a picture of Buddha during the game. Truly amazing to see how much faith Thai people have. A picture of Jesus or Ala would never be passed around at a school event which made this experience that much more powerful to me. And people most likely would appreciate a win like to be from skill or luck not from the well wishes of the god they worship.

Soccer boys

The days were long out in the sun all day long. What was most surprising though is that I would meet my students and fellow teachers at school around 8 or 8:30 each day but I could hear my students at school playing sports as early as 7:00. Then we would go to sports week and they would run their brains out playing volleyball, soccer, betonk, tak kaw, and foot sol and when we would get home usually around 3:00 or once even 5:30 the students would continue to play sports. I don’t know what they eat for breakfast but I better find some of it so I can have that much energy in one day. I was pooped out at the end of the day and I was just sitting watching them play.  It was five days of the same old playing sports constantly. (December 2,3,7,8,9. December 6 and 10 were holidays so that week was only a 3 day week anywho.) Just picture a track meet in the States, typically a day event, that lasts five days. American kids would be dead! It is so much a part of their culture though. They set up tents by each event, they have water, coffee, cookies, food venders, and of course beer and whisky- for the male teachers and PA to get mao (drunk). The trophies that the schools can win are also on display all week. 

Sports week ended with a huge ceremony. Five of my girl students spent the night at Phee Malee’s (1^st grade teacher) house and woke up at 3 in the morning to get their hair and makeup done and to dress up in traditional wear. The other students came as they had every other day in their matching navy blue gym shorts and light blue shirts. We piled into the back of a truck, I felt like cattle, and drove to Loy Pratong School. Only we didn’t go to the school we stopped on the side of the highway where all the schools were lining up for a parade. All schools had some students dressed in traditional outfits, a marching band, baton twirlers, and the remainder of the students followed behing marching, dancing, or hula hooping. Teachers from all schools judged each school as the paraded down the main highway that was not closed off. Rather the students were in the 2 east bound lanes and the traffic just moved over to the west bound lanes. Imagine highway 82 and students on one side and traffic still whizzing quickly by right next to them. YEIKS! The destination of the parade was the field at Loy Pratong School. Students stood in rows as speeches were given, songs were sung, flags from each school were raised, an Olympic torch was lit, and of course cannons were blasted, and the whisky was flowing. One of my teachers laughed this week while she told me she was mao (drunk) during the closing sports day. AWKWARD!!!! The ceremony was followed by more championship games. It was also the only day for annuban (Kindergarten) students to come and they ran a relay race on the field in their bare feet. OUCH!!

My students came home from their first sports week, Chok Amnuay has never participated in sports week before, with trophies in tak kaw and betonk. So proud of my kiddos! The 3 tak kaw boys and 2 betonk girls will now be going to a NKP wide competition to be held sometime in the new year. I am assuming it is like states for us in the U.S. Hopefully they will bring home more trophies! 

Beauty Queen 

Chok Amnuay in Parade



Closing Ceremony (Those aren't clouds they are the cannons)